The Limerick Lace Conservation project.
From May 2018 to Jan 2019 I was on a cooperative education internship at the Interaction Design Centre (IDC) at University Limerick. During this time I had the privilege to work with the Friends of Lace initiative at Limerick Museum. The Friends of Lace initiative is a group of volunteers working in collaboration with Limerick Museum toward the preservation and study of the lace collection. It is spearheaded by Dr Gabriela Avram of the IDC. On this project I met and worked with lace makers from whom I learned a lot about Limerick Lace. Limerick Lace is the most famous of all Irish laces, it is recognised as an Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) of Ireland.
I documented the Limerick Lace Conservation Workshops which were held fortnightly at the Limerick Museum by Friends of Lace. This job involved taking photos of the museum’s lace artefacts as they were being examined, recorded and repacked by members of Friends of Lace. After each workshop I sorted the photos per artefact, filed them and then uploaded a selection of them to the Limerick Lace website. I also digitalised the notes taken by the members on each lace item. The lace artefacts were wrapped carefully according to conservation methods and stored in new archival boxes in the Museum’s dedicated lace room. I compiled a lace storage inventory for the museum’s curator.
Graphic Design and Logo Branding
I worked on logo, graphics and branding of printed materials and merchandise for the lace project. The vector logo graphic I designed was based on a lace floral motif from a Limerick Lace veil, picked out by Dr Gabriela Avram.
Using Adobe InDesign I did the layout of the Limerick Lace colour brochure for Limerick Museum, liaising with the writers and delivering the document printer-ready to Alphaset commercial printers.
I did the layout and formatting of Limerick Lace Instructions booklet using Microsoft Word, working closely with its author, Toni O’Malley, who is a renowned limerick lace maker, we designed a layout for the instructions that would be clear for beginner lace makers to follow.
The booklet is now for sale with the Friends of Lace lace making kit. It can purchased from the Limerick Museum, the Hunt Museum or online through the Limerick Lace Facebook page.
click to visit website
click to see brochure
click to see booklet
Inspired by Lace Making
December 2018 saw me in FabLab Limerick laser cutting Christmas cards based on the lace motif logo. And yes, I tried to learn making real Limerick Lace! I signed up for a Limerick Lace making class in Heritage Week 2018 and learned a stitch or two. Stitched in that time too was a conductive pom-pom e-textile sample. During my internship I joined “e-stitches Limerick” which is affiliated to the IDC’s Future Textiles Lab project. In the future I would like to work on a project that combines lace making and e-textiles.
The Interaction Design Centre (IDC) at University Limerick is involved in research and education in the areas of user-centred design, participatory design, interaction design, and computer supported collaborative work.